Russiagate Involvement: Mueller Zeros In on Story Put Together About Trump Tower Meeting NY Times By JO BECKER, MARK MAZZETTI, MATT APUZZO and MAGGIE HABERMAN January 31, 2018: “Mr. Corallo is planning to tell Mr. Mueller about a previously undisclosed conference call with Mr. Trump and Hope Hicks, the White House communications director, according to the three people. Mr. Corallo planned to tell investigators that Ms. Hicks said during the call that emails written by Donald Trump Jr. before the Trump Tower meeting — in which the younger Mr. Trump said he was eager to receive political dirt about Mrs. Clinton from the Russians — “will never get out.” That left Mr. Corallo with concerns that Ms. Hicks could be contemplating obstructing justice, the people said.”

Trump’s 28-year-old communications adviser has earned the president’s trust by letting him do just as he pleases when it comes to dealing with the press. By ANNIE KARNI 07/22/2017 Politico

“The polite, soft-spoken 28-year-old newbie to Washington politics holds the lofty title of director of strategic communications, pulls down the top White House salary of $179,700 — the same as strategist Steve Bannon and chief of staff Reince Priebus — but operates outside of any organizational chart.

She is protected, in a world of rival power centers, by the deep bond she shares with the man at the top. He affectionately refers to her as “Hopester.” She still calls him “Mr. Trump.” And she views her job, ultimately, as someone who is installed where she is in order to help, but not change, the leader of the free world.

But an explosive Trump interview this week with The New York Times, in which Hicks was the only aide in the Oval Office with the president, has thrust her protected and preferred under-the-radar status into fuller view.”